A housing shortage causes riots in the capital
The first years of the new German state formed in 1871 saw at least 20 outbreaks of major rioting in its urban centres, caused by acute housing shortages. The situation in the new imperial capital was especially acute. An economic boom in Berlin attracted workers from far and wide, swelling its population to over 800,000. House building could not keep pace with the tens of thousands of new arrivals, who often built new slums that were cleared as soon as they had developed. Leases were often only concluded for months so that rents could be increased after they expired. Tenants reacted by subletting beds to lodgers for just a few hours each night. Those who lost their accommodation often ended up in the municipal workhouse on Alexanderplatz.
On 25 July 1872, a dispute broke out in Blumenstraße – a street in a workers’ quarter in the east of Berlin – between a landlord and his artisan tenant over disputed rent arrears. When onlookers sought to prevent the fire brigade from removing the now homeless man’s furniture, the noise attracted more neighbours and passers-by. The crowd – by now numbering thousands – smashed the landlord’s windows, built barricades and pelted the police who had arrived to restore order. The demolition a few days later of a nearby illegal settlement – during the course of which residents’ belongings had been destroyed – proved to be a tipping point, and a full-scale riot erupted. After days of violence, the local authorities considered summoning the army, but the withdrawal of the police calmed the situation. Official records indicate that 159 rioters and 102 police officers were injured, but the true number was likely higher. Eighty-five rioters were sentenced to prison terms, some for many years.
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